honest words on honest music

09/20/2012

Interview with Dalot

Hi Maria, what have you been up to lately?
I am still settling down to my new place/neighborhood since my move from NY to London during the summer.

How did you initially get signed to n5MD?
In 2009, I contacted n5MD to ask them if they would be interested in selling some copies of my EP via their mailorder website. They coincidentally liked it and they signed me.

What does your name Dalot mean and where does it come from?
Dalot is the french word for culvert. Back in the golden days of Myspace, I decided to open an account and I needed a username. Next to me there was a French Dictionary. I opened one of its pages by chance and Dalot was the first word I saw. I liked the look and sound of it and I kept it. Recently, I discovered that there are two areas that go by that name, one in France and one in India. Dalot is also a Surname in countries like Portugal or France. I had a couple of people named Dalot contacting me to ask whether I was a distant relative of theirs.

And for Minutestatic I see that you got the label head himself, Mike Cadoo to contribute bass and drums to the album. How did this collaboration come about?
I like Mike’s work in general so that came naturally. I asked him if he would like to contribute to some of the tracks and he was more than happy to do it.

What is your production setup like?
My main workstation is a laptop connected to monitor speakers and a midi keyboard. I also use my guitar, an ebow, a microphone and a portable recorder, depending on what I want to record. I recently upgraded my set-up with the purchase of two midi controllers by Novation. The software I use is Ableton Live.

How do you decide which pieces will include your vocals?
I see vocals more like a textural element and the whole process of including them in pieces is 100% based on intuition.

Care to shed some light on the events that triggered the late night improvisations which eventually turned into full tracks on the album?
The album is dedicated to a cousin of mine who passed last year.

Talk a little about the success of your Kickstarter project.
The EU/UK mini tour I did last year was my first one and I wanted it to be something collective and special. Kickstarter felt like the right way to go. It was not easy to run it though. I had to carefully plan it and manage it throughout the duration of the campaign so as to bring more attention and new people in. It would not have succeeded, had I sent the same message to all different people at the same time. Many thanks also go to the people who helped spread the word.

Are you looking forward to your performance at Decibel? Tell us a bit about your live show.
Yes, absolutely. I’ve never been to Seattle and it will be my first time performing there. In general, I see playing live as a different outlet of creating an experience that is both mental and emotional. What I perform in front of an audience and what I record in an album are two different strands coming from the same root. Of course I always reference album materials but I like to reshape and remix them depending on the set. For Decibel I will create a special ambient set inspired by the dialectic between presence/absence, dream/reality. The visuals are prepared by a close collaborator of mine, Theofilos Ieropoulos (aka Filtig) who used original footage by a multimedia dance group called Detour Collective, with whom I have also collaborated several times in the past.

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One thought on “Interview with Dalot”

dalot rocks… on and off stage. her music is some of the most delicate yet intense on the planet, and truly speaks from the heart. a more down-to-earth, nicer, and truer musician you will rarely ever meet. if everyone in music nowadays possessed her combination of humility and amazing talent, the world would be a very different place.

anyone who doesn’t know her music yet, do yourself a favor and correct that mistake. it’s a true soundtrack to life.